The Media

Since 2006, I have argued that the Super Bowl should be moved to SATURDAY. And whether you want the Monday afterward made into a national holiday, which will never happen, or to move the game to Saturday – it just makes sense to move the game from Sunday.

But let’s cut to the chase about why: It’s an argument for alcoholism as on the day that’s essentially become an American national holiday, we drink, eat, we drink more, we digest venison chili, and the next day we really suck at work and just want to recover and talk about what a letdown the game was.

Now ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has jumped into the discussion and taken up the mantle at MoveTheBigGame.com.

“I’ve been reporting on sports for what feels like 56 years and I can say without question that the Super Bowl is every bit as big as the Grey Cup – don’t ever question me,” said Mayne, while wearing a pair of pants. “But having the big game on Sunday is about as relevant as something not relevant. It’s time to move the Super Bowl to Saturday and I’m doing it with the help of CafePress because they care about America because they’re the most Americanized American place on the Internet machine pretty much, well, ever.”

Visit MoveTheBigGame.com and you can find a very funny video (below) of Mayne beating the streets of New York to make his argument, along with a point-by-point outline and links back to CafePress.com merchandise supporting the movement. Check it out:

The Cardinals’ regular season is just under two weeks away, which means radio outlets in St. Louis are getting their ducks in a row. Exclusive interviews, featured segments, and of course, branded swag.

101 ESPN unleashed a proof of their new product line via Facebook this afternoon, which hinges upon Chris Duncan’s use of the word “man soda”. You see, that’s a clever substitute for “beer”, people.

“100% MAN SODA APPROVED”

Well, now we’re confused. Is the man soda the one doing the approving of the man soda? That’s meta. And also: stupid. Why not, “This is my man soda”? Or, “Approved for my man soda”? Or, maybe, just not doing anything at all?

Typically, the masses that follow 101 ESPN lap up anything and everything related to the afternoon co-host, but even they were largely unimpressed with this effort. Among the complaints: they’re blue (read: the color that the Cubs wear), they’re sponsored by Miller-Coors (read: not Anheuser-Busch) and they’re stupid (read: they’re stupid). Frankly, we’re consistently impressed that radio outlets can sell something like this to a major brand…but selling a dedicated website banner is beyond their capabilities.

Anyway, early reviews are not good. Really, the only person impressed with this whole ordeal is Wally. Wally kinda sorta dug the idea, but only expressed his feelings through a back-handed compliment. A compliment that 101 ESPN gladly accepted and produced a free beer koozie for Wally.

But, wait.

101 ESPN said that they’ll send one out tomorrow? So, they’re already printed? The image above looks like a proof image. You know, something you send around for approval and/or feedback. We have plenty; as did 101 ESPN’s followers. But, apparently they’re already printed. Oh well. Hope you like, um, this.

That’s like Bernie Miklasz writing his Sunday column and bringing the actual printed newspaper to his editor to proofread on Monday.

Last week, Dan Caesar announced that 590 KFNS and 1380 SHIT are undergoing a management and marketing shift while dividing and conquering the local radio demographic. We’re still not convinced that this isn’t an elaborate April Fool’s Day ploy, but moving forward, 590 AM will be known as “THE MAN” and 1380 AM will be known as “THE WOMAN”.

You see, “THE MAN” is going to talk about man things and “THE WOMAN” is going to talk about woman things. Mind: blown, right?

Perhaps the biggest issue is that radio guys think they know what men want to listen to; namely, locker room chatter and tons of veiled penis references. Can you imagine these same guys pondering over a radio lineup on 1380 “THE WOMAN”? Thankfully, we didn’t have to imagine…because we obtained EXCLUSIVE audio from their brainstorming session.

Note: this skit will appear in this week’s JoeSportsFan Show podcast. Check it out on Friday.

Postgame radio call-in shows are much more than mindless filler between the final buzzer and the return to “regularly scheduled programming”. It’s our chance to hear what our fellow fans think, live and unedited. And any time you let a random jerk off the street opine, you never know what you’re going to hear.

Typically, callers fall into one of the following categories: doom-and-gloomers (“The sky is falling!”), Stepford fans (“We should just blindly support everything and everyone associated with the team no matter what like mindless sheep.”), uneducated rubes, attention whores, and finally, a tiny smattering of normal people.

Oh wait, I left out one category: the obscene phone caller. These are the people that hang on the line, sometimes for 30-40 minutes or longer, waiting to say something only a person with the maturity level of a third-grader would find funny (i.e. me). Case in point, this caller, who chimed in following a recent Fighting Illini basketball game:

Since the opponent on this night was Penn State, it’s difficult to tell whether the caller was going for some kind of Jerry Sandusky-related joke or he was simply compelled to blurt out a random ‘cock and balls’ on the air. Either way, good show. This is one obscene phone call that would make even Rockwell proud.

It’s one thing for such chicanery to be broadcast live, but it’s also interesting to note that the ‘cock and balls’ were not edited out of the resulting podcast. Nope, instead these ‘cock and balls’ were left untouched, and thus available for all of us to enjoy. Not really sure what that says about the show’s producer (or the person that wrote this last sentence, frankly).

It is written several places in the bible that soccer sucks. And the word of God is strong — apparently just not in St. Louis — where people really freaking dig soccer.

Much of it goes back more than 60 years, when five of the 11 players on the U.S. National team that defeated a communist squad from England in the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis.

Then St. Louis University began racking up NCAA soccer championships like Kardashians collect rings from guys they eventually dump and humiliate, while the Heisman Trophy of college soccer — The Hermann Trophy – is named for St. Louisan Bob Hermann and awarded by the Missouri Athletic Club.

The point being that the “force” is strong in these St. Louis soccer fans. And that’s why it was not all that surprising when two of the first five ideas budgeted by Rally Saint Louis — which we’ve covered a few times — were related to soccer, in spite of its suckiness. Plus, there was yet another sports-related idea regarding basketball, which does not suck whatsoever.

Project Blacktop: Submitted by Wash-U hoops player Tim Cooney, Project Blacktop creates a nonprofit whose goal is to beautify urban areas of St. Louis with functional outdoor basketball courts that serve as hubs for the neighborhood and host community building events. It’s been budgeted at $15,000.00 for a full court and $10,000 for a half court. You can help fund it here.

St. Louis Pick-up Soccer: Creating a large turfed lit space centrally located in the St. Louis-area for year round outdoor soccer use. There were three tiers of budgets created including $860,000.00 (full-size field), $390,000.00 (medium size), and $142,000.00 (smaller field). You can fund it here.

Bring National Soccer Hall Of Fame to St. Louis: The National Soccer Hall of Fame closed its doors in 2010. Its artifacts and memorabilia sit in storage, and it’s time to bring those collections to St Louis and re-open the museum in soccer’s American home, St Louis. Because of the complexity of the project, the budget was pushed until next month but it’s coming, so hold tight soccer people.

Keep in mind that Rally Saint Louis seeks micro-donations. So if you dig an idea and can only throw literally $1 at a project, that’s cool. It’s all about the crowd.

This week Cardinal fans have been mourning the passing of their franchise’s all-time greatest player, not to mention all-around greatest guy, Stan Musial.

Local television outlets have peppered their newscasts with a steady stream of Stan coverage since word of his passing came last Saturday night, and rightfully so. Seems everybody has a personal Stan story, and hearing these now makes you appreciate the man they called, um, “The Man” and his legacy of excellence, compassion, and goodwill all the more.

But this week, during a live Elliott Davis report on one of FOX 2’s evening newscasts, a strange phenomenon occurred – something that all your fancy laws of nature, science, and reason cannot explain away. It was as if the ghost of Stan interjected himself right in the middle of Davis’ report. See for yourself:

Was this a message from Stan from beyond the grave? Perhaps he was trying to communicate one last tale of government waste for an upcoming “You Paid For It” segment before passing into the great beyond.

Although noticeably shocked and bewildered, it’s a credit to Davis that he was able to collect himself and finish his report. Say what you want, the guy’s a true pro. But we’re not buying his dismissive contention that this was a simple case of technical difficulties. No way.